Collateral Damage
by xxmagex
Summary: The Plan to find out what Faith knew about the Mayor's plan had unintended collateral damage. Now that plan is upsetting the plans of higher beings. Crossover with the RPG GURPS:In Nomine.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Sandollar, Kuzui, WB and UPN; no copyright infringement is intended, and not one red cent is being earned from this story.  
Author's Notes: Thanks to Starway Man for beta'ing this. Thank you very much for all the help.

Collateral Damage

Chapter One 

Sunnydale, California. April, 1999

Xander Harris felt pain.

His jaw ached with an intense, throbbing pain. How did that happen? he thought to himself vaguely, as he tried to wake up.

Where was he? It felt damp, wherever it was. As the fog cleared from his mind, Harris felt panic setting in.

Faith and Angel, together. Then Angel had punched him. No, wait! He's gone. Angelus is back... He had been the one with Faith. Buffy would need to know...

But Angelus had punched Xander so hard, he'd gone down like a sack of potatoes on the street for his trouble. Xander groaned a bit, and tried to sit up.

And instantly, he felt himself pushed right back down.

"Hey, look, our friend is waking up!"

Oh, shit. Someone's here with me, he thought. Xander opened his eyes and blinked a few times, trying to get things in focus.

"Sorry. Can't have that!" Xander was punched a few times. "Don't worry, I'll make this quick. And hey, you'll thank me later on!"

Xander felt two sharp pains on his neck. Panic set in completely, as he realized what was going on. His vision, even though blurred, showed a vampire at his neck.

He thrashed out, but the vamp easily deflected his blows. "Knock it off! Don't interrupt me when I'm feeding, you asshole. I might lose my place..."

The fangs plunged into his neck again, almost draining him dry. The vampire then leaned back as he cut his wrist, and held it down to Xander's face. "Here, drink already..."

Harris felt his head being lifted up. He fought it as best as he could, but he was as weak as a kitten by now and tasted the vampire's blood in his mouth.

Oh God, he's going to turn me...

"That's right, drink up. Then you'll have a nice little nap. And after that, we'll take care of your friends!"

Xander Harris felt the blackness starting to claim him. My friends? No. Not Buffy. Not Wills. Not Giles. Not even Cordy! Got to fight for them...

Safely invisible, Whistler watched the pack of vampires as they clustered around Xander.

This is not good, the balance demon thought to himself. He had been kinda fond of the boy, as Harris had a great fashion sense for a human. That was mainly why Whistler hated to see it end like this. The youth had deserved better.

"This is unforeseen, and absolutely not as it should be."

Whistler jumped at the voice. Someone had snuck up on him, on him! A balance demon. Who could it have been? He turned around to look at the newcomer, and stifled a gasp.

Next to him stood an elderly, silver-haired male wearing khakis and a tan windbreaker. He had a cigarette in his right hand, as he looked through the warehouse window at the scene unfolding below.

Whistler recognized the newcomer.

This was Yves, the Archangel of Destiny. The first Archangel. What was he doing here?

Yves spoke softly, "You know, this is the second time that something to do with that child has surprised me."

"Sir?" Whistler was very respectful of Yves.

"The prophecy was that the Slayer was to die, when she faced the Master. And that she did. But he refused to accept it. Went charging into the Master's lair with Angel in tow..."

At the mention of Angel, Yves glanced at Whistler. The balance demon reddened; Rat Breath had been his charge, not to mention his failure when Angelus had returned. And no doubt that would be remembered - by those who oversaw the Symphony.

Yves turned his attention back to the scene in the warehouse. "He wouldn't let her die. Messed up a whole lot of destinies in so doing, though. Created *lots* of dissonance in the Symphony." He sighed, "But it was all for the best. He actually made things better. Imagine our surprise..."

Whistler just kept his silence in the presence of an authentic Power, one that the other Powers That Be were in awe of.

"I'm afraid though that the Symphony will be much the poorer for this, now. The long-term consequences are..." he paused for a second. "...disturbing."

"In what way?" Whistler asked. "Bad ways. Dissonance upon dissonance. Others will be affected. The right people not being present at the right time or place...as I said, disturbing."

He took a puff in the cigarette, and pondered for a few seconds. "Perhaps..." Yves murmured to himself. "Yes, that might do. A variant of the theme, but for that to work..."

Whistler kept silent as Yves puffed on the cigarette. The Archangel started up again, "Can't save everything, not yet. In time, perhaps. But for now, all we can do is save the embers, and allow the fire to be relit later. Others will know what to do, once they're guided properly. She'll save him, even as he saves her."

Yves looked at Whistler. And Whistler had a sinking feeling that something had just majorly changed for him. "Your redemption, little demon. You failed us with Angelus. Don't fail us here." Yves started to walk away.

"What do I need to do?"

"You'll know soon enough. I'll, no - I'm planting the seeds. Cultivate them. Let them grow. Guide them, both of them." Yves looked back at the warehouse. "He will be of the darkness, but you cannot let him be *part* of the darkness. Remember that."

Both of them? Of the darkness, but not part of it? Whistler thought to himself. Then he realized why everyone hated it, when he did the whole cryptic thing on them. He now knew how they felt, since it had just been done to him.

***  
Xander fought with lessening strength. He fought as best as he could, but the group of vampires around him easily held him down as their leader continued in his grim plan.

The image of the Willow vampire came to Xander's mind. Oh God, that could be me? I have to stop it, have to stop it-

It could happen to all of his friends. Have to stop Angelus and Faith. Can't let them have this happen to them. Oh, Willow, I never even...

And with that, the blackness engulfed Xander as the soul fled his body.

Willow wrung her hands, as she sat in the library while the afternoon sun shone through the windows. "We should have heard something by now!"

The rest of the Scoobies were in the library, sitting around the table. It had been two days, since they'd realized that Xander was missing.

The plan to trick Faith had worked. But in the confusion as the brunette had escaped the mansion, no one had realized that Xander was unaccounted for.

It was the next morning when he hadn't showed up at school, that Buffy had realized that Harris was missing. Contacting Angel had revealed the last place anyone had seen him. Giles had gone to where Angel had last seen Xander, finding nothing.

Calls to his parents, once they had sobered up, had revealed that Xander had not shown up at his house. Efforts to find him had been fruitless, so far.

Oz reached over to reassure Willow. He tried to think of reassuring words, but couldn't think of any. He just hoped that his presence alone would be enough to calm Willow down.

"We have no reason to think that anything bad has happened to him. If a demon or vampire had done something to him, the word would have filtered through to the general populace of the underworld by now," Giles said with some confidence.

Indeed, Buffy had leaned on Willy to see if any of the demon underground had news of Xander. But Willy hadn't heard anything, and Buffy doubted that the snitch had been lying to her; she had been most...persuasive.

Buffy Summers fought back the internal doubts she had, though. Giles sounded confident, but still Buffy wished she had gone to check on Xander after the fight with Faith. "Yeah, Will, he'll turn up before too long - cracking some joke about sleeping in a park somewhere." And now who's fooling who? Buffy thought to herself.

"I just don't know, Buffy. This is the longest time I can remember when he hasn't called or got in touch with me. He wouldn't just not call me! Something must be wrong," Willow replied.

"Tell you what, Will. Once the sun goes down I'll go out with Angel and we'll sweep the whole town. We'll probably run into him raiding a doughnut shop, or something."

"Fine, but this time don't let Angel leave him there on the street!" Willow snapped.

Buffy bit back a retort. She had been thinking the same thing all day. So she sighed and turned away, so as not to alarm Willow any more than she already was.

Later that evening all of the Scoobies, minus one, met back at the library. The look on Buffy's face instantly conveyed to the rest that she hadn't been able to find out anything. Buffy dejectedly sat down at the table and muttered, "Nothing. Not a sign of Xander It's all quiet out there. Not even a peep out of Faith..."

"And you'd think she would be in our faces over that right now," Cordelia muttered.

Although the girl was still mad at Xander over the fluke with Willow, she was still worried about her ex. The beauty queen suddenly looked up with a worried face, "Hey, Faith was with Angel when Xander got punched unconscious. You don't suppose that she went back to get him, do you?"

Giles responded, "We've already considered that."

Willow looked up "And?"

"We asked Willy. He swears up and down that the Mayor's people didn't get to Xander. To be honest, I rather suspect that's the truth; if they had, they would have contacted us by now. Either to negotiate, or to taunt us. Faith in particular."

Buffy folded her arms. Her dislike of Faith was magnified by realizing that at some level, the renegade Slayer was responsible for whatever had happened to Xander...and never mind that she, Angel and Giles had come up with that whole idea to 'play' her that way...

At that moment, Angel emerged from the stacks. He walked down the stairs to the table. "I wasn't able to find out anything. No one's heard or seen of him-"

"Since you left him on the street!" Willow snapped at Angel.

"Will..." Buffy started, only to be interrupted.

"Oh come on, Buffy. Whatever happened, happened - because of that whole stupid plan of yours!" Cordelia snapped.

"Hey!" the Chosen One growled.

"She's right."

Buffy instantly couldn't believe it, when she saw Willow glaring at her. Giles took his glasses off to clean them, thus being able to avoid looking at Willow. Angel and Buffy both shifted uncomfortably...

"You could have told us, you know. Could have warned us, or at the very least made up some story to have all of us out of harm's way! But no, you didn't think of that - did you? All you thought about was..." the redhead trailed off.

Angel took a few tentative steps forward towards her. "Willow, please believe me when-"

But he was interrupted by the shattering of the skylight above the table, as a figure jumped through it. The person who had come through landed on his feet on the table, as agile as a cat.

He immediately attacked Angel. And Angel was caught completely off- guard. His attacker was incredibly strong and quick, smashing Angel's nose and ears during the fight so that his sense of smell and hearing was completely shot. The ensouled vamp quickly found himself pinned to the ground...

"Angel!" Buffy leapt to go to Angel's aid. But she stopped when she heard the attacker talk, well growl, at Angel. And he said:

"You move one inch - and I'll stake you in the balls before I dust you, Deadboy."

It was Xander's voice. Buffy peered at the attacker, and realized it truly was Xander. The other Scoobies realized it also, at the same time. "Xander, is that you?" Willow asked.

"Yeah. You all right, Will?" was the response.

"Yeah, but what about you, we thought - you've been gone, no word from you, couldn't find you..." She was babbling now. Oz moved up besides her.

"I know, and Deadboy here has lost his soul again!" Xander slammed him against the ground for emphasis. "He was with Faith. Looks like she's turned to the dark side. They're probably planning to attack us from within. A regular third column-"

"Fifth column," Willow corrected Xander automatically. "It's fifth column..."

Buffy moved next to Xander. "Xander, it's all right. Angel really hasn't lost his soul. We were just playing a trick on Faith..."

Xander turned to Buffy, and she noticed he was still wearing the same clothes he'd had the night he had vanished. "What the hell do you mean? I saw them together. He hit me. Knocked me out cold. Left me on the street as a free meal, for anything that came along!"

Angel answered that one, still pinned underneath Xander. "We were, uh, running a sting operation to find out what Faith was up to. The demon they were using to steal my soul had warned us...we just sort of turned the whole thing on them-"

Buffy laid a hand on Xander's arm. "I'm sorry if you were hurt, but we couldn't risk anyone finding out and blowing the whole thing. Look - me, Giles and Angel kept it secret from everyone. We had to make Faith think Angel was on their side, so he had to knock you out so that she wouldn't suspect-"

"And he just left me there." It was more a statement than a question. Harris then shifted his arm, so that Buffy's hand fell off it.

"He had to! If Angel had done anything different, she would have known something was up. Anyway, the plan worked great. We learned everything Faith knew! The Mayor is doing something called the Ascension on Graduation day. We're going to stop him..." Buffy took a breath. "And now that you're back, everything will be all right-"

Xander thought for a second, then he stood up and let Angel off the ground. The vampire held his hand up for help, to get up from the ground.

Xander just ignored it, taking several steps back. He just closed his eyes and spoke, "All right, Buffy? I don't think so. Nothing will ever be all right again."

Buffy stared at him, with a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean?"

Xander looked at her, as his face morphed into that of a vampire's. "Well, let's just say everything changed that night, and not for the good either!"

Buffy Summers felt herself go cold, as she saw Xander's face shift into a vampiric visage. Oh God, no - this can't be true. This must be some kind of sick joke! Xander's mad at us for leaving him on the street like that, and-and this is just his way of getting back at us! Buffy desperately thought to herself.

But if so, how had he been able to throw down with Angel like that? Buffy's denials fell down one by one in light of what she had seen, and what she suddenly realized her Slayer senses were telling her.

This was Xander Harris, and he was now a teenage vampire.

Willow stifled a gasp and a sob, as she saw Xander's face. Oh, no...oh my God-

Harris turned away from her, "Don't look at me, Will, I don't want you to see me like..." It was almost as if Harris was struggling to not sob himself. "...this."

With that Xander turned from the Scoobies, without a word, and ran, almost bounding out of the door of the library out into the hallway. The entire gang just stood there dumbfounded, as they watched him disappear.

After what seemed a lifetime, but was actually only about a minute, Willow walked up and faced Angel. This is all your fault...

The undead Champion looked at her, and he could tell she was holding back tears. "Willow, I'm-"

He never got to finish that sentence, as Willow slapped him hard across the face. "Damn you! Damn you to Hell, where you belong!"

"Willow..." Giles started.

"Don't even say it! Or I'll turn you into a toad!" she snarled back at him. "You and your stupid games did this. His blood is on your hands!"

Miss Rosenberg looked at Giles, Angel and Buffy all in turn. "*All* of your hands! You're just as guilty of getting him killed, as the vampire that did that to him. And I hope you all burn for that!"

She stormed out of the library, with Oz close behind her.

Cordelia did the same thing. But before she left, she just said cuttingly to the trio, "You know, I really hope you three are proud of yourselves. And the next time someone needs CPR in the Master's cave, or to be rescued at Angel's mansion, or to be stopped from killing someone at the hospital? Well. Good luck finding someone else to be there, for your pathetic asses!"

Whistler watched Xander, as the youth drank the blood that he had gotten from the local butcher shop.

The problem with vampires is that they have to feed, the need for blood eventually becomes overwhelming. And a new vamp wasn't picky. Whistler was just personally surprised, that the kid hadn't broken down yet and attacked a human to drink them...

But in the few days since it had all happened, the former Scooby had not even looked cross-eyed at anyone's neck. It was most un-vampire of him.

Harris had been drinking rats and cats, mostly, before he'd wised up a bit. He reminded Whistler of how Angel had been, when they had first met. Of course, that had been after the former Irishman had been in the possession of his soul for almost a hundred years...

And Xander was acting that way, less than a week into his tenure as a vampire?

At first, Whistler thought that somehow Xander still possessed his soul. But this had quickly been proven wrong; when Whistler had gotten close enough to Xander to sense a soul, there had been nothing there to detect.

And yet, the undead teen acted as if he had a conscience and wouldn't cross the line. Whistler suspected that this was somehow Yves' doing...

Still, if Xander didn't feed, he would cross the line and become just like the rest of them in his behavior. So he'd gotten blood, to try and stop this from happening.

Harris had also come around here, when he saw a wanted poster for one of the cats he had drained. It had seemed to disturb him. And then he'd met Whistler, and an 'interesting' conversation had taken place.

Talk about your odd couple, Whistler thought, as he handed the boy a blood bag. "Be careful, kid, that blood is like ice cream. Drink it too quick, and you'll get a really bad headache..." Whistler commented, as Xander tore into the packet.

The vampire just looked up at him, and then went back to devouring the contents of the packet. "Hey, don't say I didn't warn you!" the balance demon said, shortly before Xander dropped the packet he was draining and gripped his head.

"Kid, I told ya! I swear, you're going to have to slow down. You've been a vampire..." Whistler stopped, as Xander glared at him with an intensity that scared him. Whistler rephrased what he had been saying, "You've been...in this shape, for barely a week. There are things you have to learn, so you can survive."

"Why?"

"Why what?" Whistler asked.

"Survive. Why should I want to survive?"

Whistler thought frantically, Ah, crap. What do I tell the kid, 'cause I can't tell him much...

Of course, that was because Whistler didn't know much himself. One thing he had learned from his time doing this was that you always had to let the people you were dealing with believe that you knew more than what you were saying, otherwise they started to ignore what you told them. That was one of the reasons for the whole cryptic thing that he did.

"'Cause you have to," the demon said with a calculated shrug.

"Says who?" Xander growled back at him.

"Says me!" Whistler responded, then continued at the look on Xander's face. "And a lot of others. Plans are being made by the major players up there, kiddo. The balance must be maintained. There are greater things going on here than you know-"

Xander turned away from Whistler. "I've been told about you, *Whistler*. Being all with the cryptic, and not really giving any details..."

Oh. Double crap! It must have been Buffy Summers who had told the kid who he was. Since the time the agent of balance had been watching over the new vampire, he had yet to mention the names of any of the Scoobies.

"You just really basically annoy people, and don't add anything to the situation at all - right?"

Whistler cursed mentally, this wasn't part of the job description. Walking a newly-created vampire through his first days. Even if anyone had any experience with this, it was him - Whistler suspected that this was going to turn out to be a very atypical experience for him.

"Look, kid, bottom line is things are set up to happen in certain ways. And if they don't happen those ways, bad things will happen."

"You mean, like me getting turned into a soulless monster?"

Lets See, Whistler... the demon thought to himself. This is going to be harder than you first thought...

Willy held an icepack up to his cheek, and moaned in pain. "Now why did you go and do that, Slayer?" he asked Buffy, who was standing over him.

Angel hovered around behind her. The bar was empty, as all the patrons had cleared out when Buffy and Angel had arrived with blood in their eyes.

"'Cause you told us that no one had done anything to Xander. I don't like it when I'm lied to, particularly about something that important!"

"What? Nothing's happened to the kid-" Buffy hit Willy at once. "Hey, I'm telling the truth!"

Buffy leaned down and almost snarled into Willy's face, "No you're not. 'Cause, we saw Xander a couple of hours ago."

"Well, good for you-" Willy tried to interrupt, but Buffy kept on talking. "Only thing was, he's now a member of the undead fraternity. Bumpy face, and all. So someone had to make him that way, right?"

Willy looked up in panic. "Uh, I-I-I didn't know..."

He then looked at Angel standing behind Buffy, with panic in his eyes. "Come on, Angel, you know that if someone had bagged one of the Slayer's friends then they woulda been in here - bragging it up, for the whole world to hear! But no one, and I mean NO ONE, has said anything in here about doing something to that kid. I swear..."

Angel stepped forward and put a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "He's right. Normally, something like this would travel at the speed of light on the demon information highway. And I'd have heard about it, long before now."

Buffy leaned back, still scowling at Willy. "All right, let's look at this from another viewpoint..." She reached down, and grabbed the front of Willy's shirt. "What's happened recently that seems strange? Something that's changed its habits. Gathering its forces. The Mayor up to funny business..."

Willy shook his head. "No, nothing like that. Everything's..." His voice suddenly trailed off. "Wait up. There was that gang..."

"What gang?" Buffy and Angel both demanded at the same time.

"Uh, there was a gang of biker vampires in here a while ago. Making a bunch of noise. From Texas, or something. Asking questions about you, and everyone else-"

"And you told them!?" Buffy almost shouted as she pulled Willy up to his feet, the ice bag being dropped behind him.

"NO! NO! Come on, you know I know better than that!" Willy stammered out in blind panic. "I didn't give up anything. Well, other than that you were dangerous and not to be messed with..." the bartender whimpered, as Buffy glared at him.

"So then they asked all the bar patrons what was the what. Made some noise about how they had taken out a Slayer already, and were looking to make it a second in as many decades..."

"And?" Buffy prompted him.

"They up and vanished about two days ago. No one's seen hide or hair of them since."

"That's when Xander..." Angel whispered, finishing the sentence silently, ...was left to die on the street. By me.

"Where?" Buffy was short and to the point.

Willy reached over, and scribbled an address on the piece of paper he grabbed from the bar. "Here, this is where their nest is. Was. Whatever..."

Buffy took the paper. She pushed Willy back against the wall, and started to walk away. But when the Slayer got halfway to the door she stopped, even if she didn't turn around. "If I find out you gave them any information, which led to what happened? I'll come back for you. And the only way you're leaving this bar, is in a body bag..."

With that, Buffy started walking again and out the door of the bar. Angel just sent Willy a look, before following her.

The door of the warehouse burst open and flew across the big room, narrowly missing the motorcycles that were parked inside. The sole vampire in the room looked up in panic, from the cycle he had been readying. He looked lost, surrounded by the other motorcycles.

Buffy walked through the open doorway.

The vampire actually seemed to relax just a little bit, when he saw who it was.

Buffy approached him, and glanced at his motorcycle. A bag was strapped to the back of it. "Going somewhere?" she asked.

He eyed the Slayer warily. "Yeah, nothing keeping me here anymore. Thought I'd blow town..." he said with fake bluster.

Buffy could almost smell the fear off him, yet she got the hint that he was actually more scared of something else. What's up with that?

"Why even come, if you have nothing to tie you down here?"

The vampire jumped at the sound of Angel's voice. He hadn't noticed the other vamp come into the warehouse from the sewer entrance. He stammered out a reply, "Hey, just seeing the good ol' USA..."

He turned back to Buffy, only to meet head-on her incoming fist. He was knocked over one of the nearby motorcycles.

Buffy advanced on his prone form. "Lot of motorcycles here, just for one rider."

The vampire scrambled to try and get away from her. "Hey, so I like a wide selection!"

Buffy glanced at Angel, who grabbed the vampire and held him in place. The Summers girl towered over him and snarled, "I think you're lying..." She took the cross necklace from around her neck, leaned over and pressed it down on the vampire's cheek. He cried out in pain. "And I don't like liars."

"Okay, enough! What do you wanna know?" the vampire cried out.

"Let's try, telling us why you're leaving?" Buffy removed the cross from the vampire's cheek.

The vampire looked around in panic. Buffy leaned back in, waving the cross at him. The undead biker held up his hands and waved them. "NO, NO! I'll tell you what you want to know!"

The vampire paused for a second, then continued. "I'm just afraid he'll come back..."

"Who?" Angel pushed down, and put on his game face.

"That friend of yours, of course! You know, the one you punched unconscious a few nights back? We saw ya do it! Hit him hard too, went down like a sack of rocks thrown over a cliff. Ray recognized him. Knew he was close to the Slayer..."

"Who's Ray?"

"Ray is, uh, *was* our leader. Bad hombre. He killed that Slayer a few years back, in Canada? He came here 'cause..." The vampire stared at Buffy for a second, "...well, 'cause he wanted to kill another Slayer..."

"And?" Buffy prompted, barely restraining the urge to stake him.

"Ray said it was like a gift from Heaven. Having someone close to you just dropped into our laps like that! He joked that we'd have to write you all a thank-you note..."

Angel looked away in shame.

"...so we grabbed the kid, and brought him back here."

Buffy looked around, and saw a long table over in the corner. She felt sick, when she realized that it was most likely where Harris had died. Oh God, Xander, I'm so sorry...

The vampire continued on, "Kid put up a fight when he woke up. Never had a chance, of course, he was still too groggy to really do anything when Ray turned him. Because the boss wanted him to get close to you and start turning all of that gang you hang out with, ya know? By the time you'd have noticed anything, it woulda been too late - as your undead pals would have come after you. After all, you didn't even come looking for the kid till the next day..."

Buffy almost vomited when she fully processed the vampire' swords. She barely managed to croak out her next question. "So what happened? Why are you all Lone Ranger here now?"

"Kid woke up, as planned. Ray had some blood he'd snatched from the local blood bank. Fed the new recruit, same as he'd done a hundred times before. Ray then started talking about the plan - you know, telling the kid how he was going to kill and turn the others. But when Ray mentioned the witch, the kid stopped drinking, glared at him and..."

"Go on!" Angel prompted him.

"The newbie glared at Ray for a few seconds, threw down the packet and then grabbed the boss. Damn freak had this majorly feral look! Ray was completely surprised. So was everyone else, when the kid ripped Ray's head off-"

"What?" Angel demanded. "How did he do that? A fledgling can't possibly-"

"I'm just telling you what's what. Head came off! Clean off. I mean, Ray had about 6 inches and a hundred pounds on the kid - and that guy just tore his head off! He then looked at the rest of us. Had that same feral look. Freaking blood was dripping from his chin, man! Game face on, but worse than any other vampire I've ever seen. He..."

The biker vampire faltered for a second. "There were fourteen of us, well - thirteen after Ray got all dusty. I was the only one to get out. And that's only because the freak got tripped up on one of the hogs! I able to get out through the sewer, while he was dealing with the others..."

The vampire looked around at Buffy and Angel. "That's all I know. So what now?"

"How did your sire know who Xander was?" Buffy asked.

"Uh, Ray had been watching your house for several nights. He saw all of your friends go in and out of there. Look, you going to let me go? Because hey, I told you what you wanted to know!"

Buffy sighed. "Yeah, you did. I wished you hadn't, but you did." The vampire looked hopeful for a second, till he saw the stake in Buffy's hands. "Still, you have to pay for what happened. Just like the rest of 'em..."

"No!" the vampire cried, as he exploded into dust from the stake sticking out of his chest.

Buffy stood up, staggered over and leaned over on one of the motorcycles. Then she started vomiting.

After a few seconds, she wiped her mouth with her arm. The Chosen One stood still for a while, then she started to sob. Angel hurried over to comfort her...

Buffy Summers, Slayer, hero and champion, flung Angel's arms off of her like they were the tentacles of the Hellmouth demon itself. "Don't touch me. Don't touch me!"

She started to walk numbly out of the warehouse, and headed for home. Things would never be the same again...

to be continued


	2. Chapter 2

Sunnydale, California. Early May, 1999*

"What do you mean, you haven't staked Mr. Harris yet?" Wesley asked, the surprise evident in his overly stuffy British voice.

"It means, I haven't killed my best guy friend yet. And I don't intend to do so anytime soon, either," Buffy shot back.

"Ms. Summers, maybe you don't understand - but Xander Harris is already dead. You won't be killing HIM. You will merely be dispatching the soulless demon that is now occupying his corpse," Wesley explained, somewhat impatiently.

Buffy, Wesley and Giles were meeting in the library. "I'm afraid we simply have to face facts. It is far too dangerous to allow a vampire with Mr. Harris' memories to remain at large...his knowledge of the group could easily be exploited by the forces of evil to destroy us all."

"I told you, I'm not staking Xander," Buffy said with obstinate determination.

"Buffy," Giles said gently. "I know it's difficult for you to hear, but Wesley's right. The Xander we knew is gone. It was horrible what happened and we are responsible for what happened, but you can't allow this particular soulless vampire to threaten us or kill any innocents."

Buffy turned to her Watcher, well her ex-Watcher. "But Giles, that's just it - he's not. I don't know what's going on, but Xander is NOT acting like a regular old vampire!"

"Wishful thinking, I'm afraid..." Wesley said, a look of distaste on his face.

His position of authority over Buffy had in fact grown, ever since Xander had been turned. After all, he wasn't to blame for what had happened that night. Oddly enough, the other Scoobies seemed more accepting of him now due to that fact; of course, they hadn't heard him advocate the dusting of Xander yet either.

Wes went on, "It is understandable that you'd want to remember your friend the way he was, not as a bloodthirsty demon, but-"

"Not helping your cause, Wesley," Buffy said tartly. "Besides, I saw him just last night."

"Buffy," Giles said with concern. "Did he-?"

Buffy shook her head. "It was in the alley behind the Bronze. There was a couple leaving. And man, they really should have been more careful! A couple of vampires had cornered them..." Buffy left unmentioned that the female half of the couple had been Cordelia Chase.

"Harris has allied vampires working with him now?" Wesley asked worriedly.

"No, no, nothing like that! Xander fought the other sunlight-challenged, and kicked undead ass! He was protecting the humans, just like Angel would have done," Buffy explained. "I tried to talk to him, but he ran off before I could get close. He's still probably skittish, ever since I tried to read his mind a while ago..."

Buffy had hoped then to get close enough to Xander to read his mind, when she had been infected by the aspect of that mouthless demon. To know once and for all what kind of 'creature' Xander now was, beneath the surface.

But it hadn't worked, in between Buffy's inability to penetrate a vampire's brain - and Xander's determination to avoid Buffy and any of the Scoobies.

There had been a particularly harrowing chase through the warehouse district, as Buffy pursued her one-time friend. And the smart money would have said that Ms. Summers had finally seen the last of Xander Harris, after that night was over.

But later, when the blonde Slayer had been on the edge of going insane, there had been an additional heart of a demon dropped off in front of her house, besides the one Angel had gotten.

"I don't know how, but he, like, just vanished into the night. I looked for him, but he was gone." Buffy didn't mention that Cordelia had been trying to talk to her ex-boyfriend as well, while Buffy had approached. She had gotten closer than she expected, when Xander had sensed her and fled the scene.

"Most probably he was trying to get rid of the other vampires in order to attack the couple himself," Wesley declared obstinately.

"Damn it, Wesley! Listen to me, real carefully. I know what I saw, and it wasn't wishful thinking. I saw Xander defending people from vampires!" Buffy almost growled at the prat, moving towards him.

Wesley stepped back quickly, sensing that he was not helping his argument with his comments. He tried to sputter out a response, but was saved when Giles spoke up.

"Buffy, be that as it may, Xander is still a soulless demon. He is a, a threat. He must be dealt with." Inwardly, Giles hated what he was saying, even thought he believed he was right.

Buffy crossed her arms and glared at her former Watcher. Giles could sense he had lost something with Buffy over the last few days; her respect and confidence in him. Where once she would have deferred to his judgment in the past, now? Well, now, his judgment was suspect.

And it didn't help that his judgment right now was something Giles really didn't have much faith in, himself.

"If you want him dead, you'll have to do it yourself," Buffy said in a flat tone.

Giles's eyes widened at that. Wesley stuttered for a second and then spoke, "Ms. Summers, that is highly irregular. Watchers do not slay vampires, we only watch and record - we haven't the skill or power to engage in-"

Buffy shook her head. "Oh no, that one isn't gonna cut it anymore. Besides, you've already killed once Giles. Why is it so hard again now, after all - it's the same person, isn't it?"

Giles naturally blanched at Buffy's words. "Ms. Summers-" Wesley started to say.

"No," Buffy cut off Wesley, her eyes never leaving Giles the whole time. "It was your plan, Giles. You came up with it. Now Angel and I went along with it, so we're at fault too just as much as anyone. However, I'M not going to make it worse by dusting him. Maybe you can get Angel to do your dirty work for you, or maybe you'll have to do it yourself, but either way I'm not doing it. And I won't ever forgive you if you do-"

"Do what?"

The three in the library turned, and saw that they had been joined by Oz and Willow. Neither teen looked particularly happy to be there. In fact, they were only there because Cordelia had told them that the subject of Xander might be discussed today - after the events of last night.

"You want to tell them?" Buffy asked Giles and Wesley sarcastically.

Giles looked at Willow. She had that look of anger on her face that he had become very familiar with, during the past few days. Willow was clearly not in the mood to forget or forgive. Giles was a little bit surprised that she was even in the library. "We were discussing Xander," the British man said quietly.

"And?" Willow said.

"He's a threat to the group, no matter what else any of you may want to believe. He knows too much about all of us, especially our strengths and weaknesses. And that knowledge might be used against us," Wesley explained.

Willow glared that the only active Watcher in the room. After a few seconds she spoke, "You don't know him the way we do, so I'll let that slide - for now..."

The redhead turned and glared at Giles as she continued, "And Giles? Anyone who's known him for years like I do is a fool to think he's a threat." Her stare at Giles was almost a challenge for him to disagree.

The silence lasted for several seconds. "What was it I said to you all, the night of the Harvest? Ah, yes - when, when you see a vampire, you're not looking at your friend anymore. You're looking at the thing that killed him, or words to that effect," Giles said somberly.

"Then it's obvious what we gotta do, right? Giles, we need to get ourselves another Orb of Thesulah," Willow said vehemently.

Oz looked concerned at that, but nonetheless stayed silent. Buffy spoke first, "Willow, just gotta point out that what you're thinking of doing is dangerous-"

Willow turned and glared at the Slayer. "Really? Well, that's kinda funny - coming from you! Like, like, I don't recall you saying that when Angel's soul was the one we were talking about!"

That had the effect of quickly shutting Buffy up in embarrassment. So Giles spoke up, "I don't have one here, I'm afraid..." He was hoping to buy some time for passions to cool, anyway.

"Then get one!" Willow almost demanded, well actually - there was no almost about it, she did demand that.

Wesley suddenly spoke up, "Might I remind you all that we still have other concerns as well? We need more information as to the Mayor's plans..."

"I thought we'd already learned about the Mayor's plans. And paid a high enough price to do so," Oz commented.

Buffy and Giles both turned pale from hearing that, the stoic statement communicating more than a wild rant ever would have. Wesley just continued on though, "Agreed. However, we need more information before we can formulate a plan or a proper response, or the...loss...will have been in vain." That seemed to have the desired effect on Willow and Oz.

Willow spoke up, "How do we go about finding out, though? I mean, I don't think that Faith will be answering any more questions, not after that little sting operation..."

Giles nodded. "True. And from what we've learned, ALL of the Mayor's people know we might come asking questions now. It took quite a bit of persuasion to even get that information from Willy." Both Angel and Giles had had to be quite threatening to the bar owner.

"We'll find a way," Buffy said. "Something will come up."

***************************************

Well, guess something did come up after all, Willow thought to herself the next night, as she looked around the Mayor's office.

After the gang's tense meeting in the library, later that night Buffy had seen a limo arriving at City Hall, and then seen Faith carrying a box inside. The Scoobies had quickly put together a plan to snatch the box, assuming it was vital to the evil enemy's plan.

The scenario hadn't quite gone as planned, though. Buffy and Angel, and in the privacy of her mind Willow inwardly fumed that Angel had been involved, had managed to obtain the box and get away clean. But in the confusion, Willow had tried to get out of the building, only to run into her least favorite Slayer.

Faith had prevented Willow from getting away, and insisted that she stay for a while. The bad guys had locked her up in a file room, guarded by a vampire. Not very a bright vampire, as well, as he had come in to drain Willow; but a neat trick of telekinesis with a pencil had removed that vampire from redhead's concerns.

Willow had subsequently tried to find her way out of City Hall. But she had wandered into the Mayor's office instead and found the Books of Ascension; the blueprints for what good ol' Dick was planning to do, upon becoming a pure demon.

She had just finished skimming through the last few pages, when Willow heard someone coming. She put the books back and tried to get out, but Faith came through the door first.

"There you are, Red. God, you keep scurrying so much that I get dizzy," Faith said with a feral smile.

"Bitch," Willow growled out. She held Faith ultimately responsible for what had happened to Xander, after all. If not for her, the others never would have come up with that Stupid plan that they'd hatched and gotten her best friend killed.

Faith just smiled. "Mouthy, aren't ya Red? Why don't you keep quiet like a good little girl..." Faith started to advance. Willow noticed she had a knife in her left hand. "Maybe, I'll do something about that."

"You just try it, skank!" Willow snapped back, her anger growing.

"Ah, Red? Me Slayer, you nerd. This is not going to end well for you," Faith shifted the knife from her left hand to her right hand.

"Yeah, well, you'll find this nerd has some teeth..." Willow said, as she concentrated. A ceremonial envelope opener lifted from the Mayor's desk. Faith's eyes widened for a second, as the sharp instrument quickly flew towards her.

However, Willow was tired - as was clear from the fact that the envelope opener slowed down during its trip, allowing Faith to easily dodge it. She glared at Willow momentarily, and then leapt towards her.

Willow felt the cold steel of the knife on her throat. "Second best doesn't win this race, Little Red," Faith said with a sickly smile.

"Let me go!" Willow protested.

"Now girls, you play nice!" the Mayor walked into the office. "Besides, the janitorial staff always hates cleaning up blood from the carpet. Do you know how much a year I have to spend on carpet cleaners?"

Willow blinked her eyes several times at Wilkins' statement. Even with a knife to her throat, the statement just seemed...odd.

"She started it," Faith whined.

"Now, now, Faith. We must rise above being provoked, mustn't we?" Wilkins walked to his desk. "Her little friends called a few minutes ago. They want her back, and they're willing to trade for her."

Willow could swear that she felt Faith smile at that. "So that means I can play with her before she goes back, can't I?"

Wilkins smiled at Faith, the way a father indulges an overeager child. "Well, I suppose a little horseplay would be all right, but don't get too rough," Wilkins said with affection.

"Cool," Faith said simply.

Willow suddenly saw the Mayor's face scrunch up a little bit, as he looked past both Faith and Willow towards the door he had just come through. "Hey, now, I gave orders that I wasn't to be disturbed-"

Suddenly, Willow felt the knife pulled from her throat. She then stumbled forward, as something or someone yanked Faith away from her.

"Motherfu..." Faith cursed, as Willow hit the floor. She rolled over to see what was happening. "Who the hell are-"

Faith was being pushed up against the wall by someone whose face Willow couldn't see, her question interrupted by her impact on the wall. Wilkins was saying something about how this was unacceptable, but no one was listening to the politician.

Faith's face showed shock, as she got a look at her attacker. "God damn. You!"

Two vampires came through the door in response to Wilkins' shouting; they only hesitated for a second, before attacking Faith's opponent.

The first one managed to pull him off of Faith, with a punch to the side of the head. The guy staggered back for a second, and finally Willow saw clearly who it was.

"Xander!" she cried out.

Faith's feral smile had returned. "Well, so, two of them huh? Guess I can play with you both now. But since they only wanted Red back, Boy Toy here I can carve up and send back to the white hats in a body bag," she said with glee.

Xander looked at Faith, as he stood up. "Bit late, sorry to say. You've already done that, Faith," he said stonily.

"Shit!" Faith shouted as Xander shifted into game face and pounced on her, backhanding her away viciously enough that he drew blood from the brunette girl.

The vampire who had punched him didn't even have a chance to react, as Vamp Xander then instantly slammed into him and almost threw the undead thing back out the door.

The other vampire approached and threw a punch at Xander's head, only to have the former Scooby duck underneath it. Harris quickly thrust upwards with his hands, and Willow saw a stake appear in Xander's hand from underneath his leather jacket.

The stake found its target and with a scream that halted in mid-shout, the vampire exploded into dust.

"Well - when did you go all bumpy forehead, stud? I normally don't backtrack, but might have to give you a second look now," Faith said with a leer, as she recovered her senses.

Willow muttered out an obscenity in response, as the first vampire came back into the room and lunged at Xander.

Xander easily blocked the attack, grabbing the arm the vampire had led with. Xander then pulled him forward, kneeing him in the groin with sadistic pleasure when the other vamp got close enough. That's gotta hurt, huh?

The bloodsucker shrieked in pain and doubled over, his momentum carrying him forward onto the floor where Willow had just gotten up from. Willow had to almost jump back to avoid the falling vampire.

Xander leaned down - and to Willow's amazement grabbed the vampire by the hair on the back of its head with his right hand and pushed its back down with the left hand. Xander jerked up with his right, suddenly when pushing down hard with the left.

A horribly gruesome ripping sound resulted as the head came up, but the body stayed on the floor. And Willow would swear for years later that the vampire's eyes actually blinked in stupefaction and looked down at its now-detached body, before turning to dust.

The office was silent for a moment. The three non-Xander occupants of the room simply staring in disbelief, at what the fledgling vamp had just done.

Faith broke the silence. "No frickin' way," she growled as she brought up the knife that she had been holding, and attacked.

"Faith! No!" Wilkins shouted out, with genuine concern in his voice. But his warning came too late, as Faith stabbed at the soulless vampire with her gift weapon.

Xander easily blocked the dark Slayer's thrust, and punched her in response. She grimaced and launched a counterattack. The two started slugging it out, and it was impossible to say who would win...

"What is he?"

Willow looked over at Mayor Wilkins in response to his question. He was staring at the two combatants, his mouth almost hanging open. Willow then looked back towards her friend and his opponent.

It was clear that Faith was not having as easy a time as she had expected from her former one-night-stand. "You ate your wheaties this morning, Zeppo?" Faith snapped.

Willow frowned at that, Zeppo? The forgotten Marx brother? Where did that come from?

Faith slashed out at Xander with the knife. "Thing is I heard you and Cordy talking, back when the Sisters of Jhe were doing their whole end of the world thing. Heard her call you that. Guess the cheerleader bitch got that one right, huh?"

This seemed to distract Xander for a second and Faith managed to stab the knife into Xander's shoulder, with the accompanying grunt of pain from the former Scooby.

"Xander!" Willow cried out.

"Don't worry, Red. I'll treat him good, like I did last time," Faith leered at Willow.

This time it was Xander who took advantage of his opponent's distracted state. He launched a kick into Faith's gut, and she dropped the knife and fell back in pain. And the soulless vampire quickly pressed his advantage...

Xander launched vicious punch after punch to keep Faith off balance, and it was working. Faith tried blocking Xander's attacks, but to no avail. He was clearly stronger than his opponent, and that was enough to worry Richard Wilkins even more than he already was.

Willow was just amazed by the ferocity of Xander's attacks, even as Faith managed to lunge again with the knife. "Just so you know, I'm going to make you watch me kill all the others, boy toy. Starting with Red over there," she said with cheerful bravado.

Xander allowed Faith's knife to go by him, as he dodged. He then grabbed her outstretched arm, and punched the evil Slayer hard in the face.

"You're not going to kill anyone, ever again," he said in a monotone to the dazed Faith. He then pulled her to him, in a horrible parody of a lover's embrace. "I'm hungry..."

And then to Willow's horror, the Xander vampire sank his face downwards and bit Faith mercilessly - plunging his fangs deep into her throat. And obscenely gulping down the rich, vital fluid spraying out of her neck.

It was like nothing else he had ever experienced, alive or undead. The youth could feel the Slayer's blood coursing into his system like a drug, and Faith's screams of pain were also enough to make the male teen feel like he was getting high on PCP.

No doubt about it - Xander at that moment felt like a god amongst insects, and Heaven help anyone who got in his way.

"No!" Wilkins shouted and rushed forward. He got to Xander, who promptly backhanded the older man away across the desk - after being briefly distracted from his meal.

Willow blinked, and then summoned up all her courage. She took several steps forward. "Xander?" she begged. "Xander, please stop..."

Vamp Xander stopped sucking, feeling Faith's heart starting to slow down, and looked up. He blinked twice, and his eyes flashed gold towards her. "Willow?" he asked simply

"Please. Don't. You're better than this," Willow actually reproached what looked like her oldest friend.

"Willow," Xander said again, his voice this time tinged with sorrow. He dropped Faith to the floor like garbage, without even a glance downwards. "I-"

"Later, right now we have to get out of here!" Willow took control, grabbing Xander's hand. "Do you know a safe way out?"

Xander nodded. "Yeah, come on-"

He led his childhood friend out of the office, as Wilkins picked himself up off the desk. Silently Richard watched the two run out, then he saw the brunette girl on the floor.

"Faith!" he shouted and hurried to her.

******************************************

Willow hurried into the library later that night. "Guys, guys!" she shouted out.

Her appearance definitely got a reaction from the Scoobies, who were clustered around the table in the center of the library.

"Willow!" Buffy shouted out and she jumped up to run over to her friend. However, she was beaten to the redhead by Oz, who almost leapt across the table to get to her.

Daniel grabbed and hugged his girlfriend fiercely, smelling her all over like the wolf he was deep down. He then leaned back and looked at the others. "It's her."

"Well, of course I'm me. Who else would I be?" Willow said in confusion.

"Well, we were kinda scared after you just sorta popped into thin air in the school cafeteria like that. We thought maybe the Mayor had pulled a fast one, and we were getting ready to storm City Hall to get you back..." Buffy explained.

Willow was now confused. "Cafeteria? Uh, Buff, what are you talking about? I've not been in the cafeteria at all tonight..."

"Where have you been then, did the Mayor just release you?" Giles came up behind Buffy.

"No, I - we escaped. Sorry it took so long to get back, but we had to go through the sewers to avoid the vampires chasing us. And wow, let me tell you, the Mayor sent everything he could after us! Took us forever to lose them, but then we came straight here-"

"We?" Oz asked, who was still holding onto Willow.

"Yeah, me and Xander..." Willow turned around to the door she had just come through. "Xander?" she asked plaintively to the empty doorway.

The redhead turned back to the others. "Where did he go?"

Buffy walked to the doorway and looked around. She looked up and down the darkened hallway, letting her Slayer senses do their work. "He's not out there," she declared.

"But he was right behind me. He walked me here, when we managed to get out of the sewers. He never got more than a few feet away from me!" Willow explained.

"You were that close to a soulless vampire, for that long?" Wesley said with concern.

Willow turned and looked at the Watcher with a frown. "It was Xander, Wesley. He saved my life."

"Saved you how?" Oz asked.

"The Mayor had Faith holding me in his office, and she wanted to..." Willow paused for a second. "Um...play with me, I guess. But then Xander came charging in, and fought her off. Almost killed her, too! He dusted two other vampires that I saw. He then..."

Willow suddenly stopped, as a fragment of something popped into her mind. "Wait a minute, what do you mean I just popped out into thin air in the cafeteria?"

"We met the Mayor and his pet vamps, to exchange the Box of Gavrock for you. They brought you in. We passed the box over to them as you walked to us, all prisoner exchange-y like. Soon as the box got to them, the Mayor said some gibberish and you just disappeared. Then the black hats kinda ran for the hills," Buffy explained.

"That wasn't me," Willow said simply.

"Well, we know that now," Giles replied. "The Mayor must have used some kind of glamour spell to make us think you were there. He must have decided to do the spell after-"

"Xander rescued me," Willow finished the former Watcher's sentence. Her features turned into what someone who had known her for years would recognize as her Resolve Face. "Giles? Do you have that Orb of Thesulah yet?"

Giles nodded. "Yes, I got one from the magic shop this morning, but Willow - I really think..."

"Don't think, just give it to me," Willow interrupted Giles.

"If I may say something?" Wesley interrupted. "I'm sure we all realize you have the best possible motives for this...undertaking, Miss Rosenberg. But may I remind you that this is a CURSE that you're about to perform?"

Suddenly, Wesley's face lost that bloody annoying pompous look. And that made everyone actually pay attention for once. "I spent quite a bit of time investigating Angel's situation, after I arrived here - and that's how I know those magicks were never intended to Help anyone, I'm sorry to say. Least of all, the vampire in question. Willow...you may think you're doing this to get your friend back, but the truth is - you're about to summon a soul from its appropriate place in the afterlife, and make it engage in a perpetual war with a demon in a dead body. Is that what you really want?"

Willow hesitated, and instinctively turned to her boyfriend. Oz said nothing, but his eyes communicated his love for and confidence in her. And that was all the redheaded young witch needed to see.

"We have to hurry, he's slipping away from us. Buffy, start drawing the sacred circle. Wesley, you're on herb detail..."

*******************************

"Kid, you have got to watch yourself. I mean busting into City Hall, which is full of vampires and demons by the way, and then going gangbusters on a Slayer and her demon wannabe master?" Whistler lectured Vampire Xander.

"Had to be done," the undead guy replied, not bothering to look up from his evening brooding session.

Yeesh. This is even worse than what I had to go through with Rat Breath, Whistler thought. "You'll get yourself dusted. And you don't want to do that."

"Why not?" Xander said simply.

"You know why..."

"OH yeah, the great plans of the PTBs and all that. Well tell me, what exactly are these great plans again?" Xander asked sarcastically.

Whistler's response to Xander was prevented by the fates, when the vampire screamed out in pain and his eyes flashed gold. Something similar to what had happened when Angelus's eyes had glowed orange in his mansion, almost exactly a year ago.

"I believe one of them just arrived," Whistler said in a sarcastic tone of voice.

***************************************

Wilkins looked up as Faith stalked into his office. "You went to the school without me?" she demanded accusingly.

"Yes, well, I had to move quickly. I told the annoying minions to do everything they could to catch or delay your little friend Willow, and her...companion. Plus a little magic hocus-pocus, and gosh! Dear old Buffy and her friends didn't realize till too late they were just seeing an illusion," Wilkins explained to his surrogate daughter with a broad smile.

"You left me behind," Faith said again.

"Ah, dear Faith. You were healing from your encounter with young Mr. Harris, after all! And I must admit, this new development has taken me by surprise. I hadn't known of him being turned! Still, we may be able to use this to our advantage. I'll have to find out more-"

"Just find out where my favorite boy toy is. I want a rematch, ASAP," Faith said angrily.

"Now that's my girl!" Wilkins said with a smile. "Care for an icee?"

***************************************************************

In the library, the two girls were alone when Buffy sat down next to Willow and handed a cup of tea to her. "Here you go. This should help."

"Thanks," Willow took the cup and sipped from it.

"How do you feel?" Buffy asked her best female friend.

"Tired, pretty much. And before you ask - it's kinda weird, but it didn't exactly feel like it did when I did that for Angel last year. So, so, did it work?" Willow replied.

"Nobody knows. We still don't know where Xander's hiding out these days to check, so we'll just have to keep an eye out for him," Buffy replied. She hesitated a second before speaking again. "So, what was it like?"

Willow frowned at Buffy's question. "What, the spell? I just told you-"

Buffy shook her head. "No, Xander. You saw him as a vampire, up close and personal like. That had to be...strange."

"No. It was still Xander," Willow said passionately.

"But..." Buffy was silent, unsure how to proceed.

Willow started talking. "You remember that time when everyone was having those weird awake nightmares?" Buffy nodded as Willow continued, "Well, you got turned into Buffy vampire. He was kinda like that, I guess."

"But that was just a dream," Buffy said. "One we could wake up from," she finished sorrowfully.

The two friends were silent for several minutes after that. Finally Willow spoke up, "He still thought you were hot then, you know."

"What?"

"Xander. He thought you were one hot chick, even as a vamp," Willow explained.

Buffy half-smiled at that. "Really. He thought I was attractive, even as a vampire? Cool."

"Things have changed so much over the past three years, huh?" the redhead asked pitifully.

"Yeah. Nowadays Xander's a vampire, you're a witch, Cordelia's a Slayerette, and I can't look at the guy I love without always being reminded of what he did - leaving Xander on the street that night."

Willow stared at Buffy. "Uh, do we need to tell Cordy about what's happened? She wasn't here tonight, after all..."

A shrug. "Myself, I think we've got more important things to worry about - but if you wanna do it, go nuts. Just be ready to duck, if Cordelia decides to start throwing things at you..."

Willow sighed. "Well, that's one constant at least, Cordy being mad at me-"

"Just be grateful that you're not in my shoes. Or that of Angel, or Giles. Have you even heard her rants about how badly we screwed up, that night? I swear, if senior year wasn't about to end in a few weeks, I'm sure she'd do something drastic..." Buffy's voice trailed off.

The two were silent again for several minutes. "Buffy, I wish I could wake up from this," Willow said, sounding very old and tired.

Buffy reached over and hugged her friend. "I know, I do too."

-fin-


End file.
